"Where Does It Go?" - a Study on Visual On-Screen Designs for Exit Management in an Automated Shuttle Bus

Riding a highly automated bus has the potential to bring about a set of novel challenges for the passenger. As there is no human driver present, there is no one to talk to regarding driving direction, stops, or delays. This lack of a human element is likely to cause a stronger reliance on the in-vehicle means of communication, such as displays. In this paper, we present the results from a qualitative study, in which we tested three different on-screen visualizations for passenger information during an automated bus trip. The designs focused primarily on signaling the next stop and proper time to request the bus to stop in absence of a human driver. We found that adding geo-spatial details can easily confuse more than help and that the absence of a human driver makes passengers feel more insecure about being able to exit at the right stop. Thus, passengers are less receptive for visual cues signaling upcoming stops and more likely to input stop requests immediately upon leaving the station.